A senior United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) official yesterday urged China to encourage the whole of society to protect the environment.

Speaking at a Beijing seminar, Khalid Malik - the UNDP resident representative in China - said: "The government, while continuing its leading role in environmental protection, should encourage all sectors of society - including non-governmental organizations, the private sector and communities - to protect and renew the environment.

"Finding solutions to environmental challenges requires good co-operation among all parties at a local level," he added.

Malik told China Daily that the UNDP has co-operated extensively with China in the field of environmental protection, ranging from drawing up policies and guidelines to carrying out specific projects on such issues as new energy sources, climate change and biodiversity.

He said China has made a lot progress in legislation connected with environmental protection but that more effort is needed to ensure harmony between development and the environment.

China has passed 24 laws and over 100 administrative rules and regulations on environmental protection and the conservation of resources in the past two decades, according to Ye Rutang, vice-director of the Environmental Protection and Resources Conservation Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislative body.

Ye's committee and Malik's office yesterday jointly sponsored a seminar in Beijing on the main findings of the "China Human Development Report 2002", whose theme is "Making green development a choice."

The report, instead of simply describing current environmental protection problems in China, helps find the root causes of the problems, said Shi Han, director of the Centre for Environmentally Sound Technology Transfers and one of those who drafted the report.

"Addressing the root causes of environmental problems is more important than curing the symptoms," Shi said.

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